Flexible containers for keeping fluid or dry products, such as a liquid, granular material, powder or the like, are known in the art. One example of a flexible container is a flexible container, for instance comprising a laminate composed of sheets of plastic or the like. For instance, a container may be made of a front and back wall comprising one or more flexible film, facing one another and joined, for example welded, along their edges. The container has an opening means to access the contents of the container. The opening means may be a spout sealed to the upper part of the flexible container, between the front and back wall. The opening can be sealed off, for instance by a removable screw cap, and may even provide for resealing the container after it has been opened.
The flexible containers can be stored in a tubular storage assembly as described in document WO 2015/128427 A1, herein incorporated by reference. The spouted containers according to this document are loaded in a number of elongated guiding elements. The guiding elements are brought into a tubular arrangement, for instance by attaching the guiding elements to each other. The containers are stored in the interior of this tubular arrangement, for instance by moving the containers one by one into the guiding elements in such a manner that the containers extend in a helical trajectory.
Unloading of the containers from the tubular storage assembly requires a discharge device. The discharge device unload the containers one by one from the respective guiding elements of the storage assembly. The containers may then be transported on a transport line downstream to one or more further processing stations, for instance a container handling line wherein the containers are cleaned, cooled, filled with foodstuffs, etc. In order to properly deliver the containers to the downstream processing system the supply of containers needs to be designed in such a manner that containers are continuously available for further transporting. For instance, when the containers are discharged from the tubular storage assembly in a batchwise manner, a further discharge operation needs to be performed to make the containers continuously available.
Additionally, some types of downstream further processing stations require that containers are urged towards the processing station, for instance because the processing station have no means to transport the containers into the station. This ensures a good infeed of the container into the station and a maximum speed to handle the containers at the station.
It is an object to provide an apparatus and method for discharging containers wherein at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art has been resolved. It is a further object to provide an apparatus and method that provide for a fast, reliable and/or efficient discharge of containers from a tubular storage assembly as defined herein, while the containers may be delivered in a continuous manner.
According to a first aspect at least one of the above objects and/or other objects may be at least partially achieved in a discharge apparatus for discharging a plurality of flexible spouted containers, the apparatus comprising:
a support element with an elongated opening for carrying a row of spouts of a plurality of spouted containers from an inlet to an outlet, wherein the support element is configured to receive successive batches of spouted containers in the elongated opening;
a biasing unit configured to move at least a subset of the spouts in the elongated opening in the support element towards the outlet, wherein the biasing unit further is configured to continuously apply a biasing force to the subset of spouts to continuously urge the containers towards the outlet.
The biasing force may always be present, with essentially no interruptions. As soon as a downstream station is in need of one or more further containers, the biasing force may cause immediate transportation of the containers towards the station.
In embodiments of the present discharge apparatus the biasing force is always present, both in situations wherein the containers are continuously discharged and in situations wherein the discharge is performed intermittently (for instance when the containers are stopped temporarily by a controllable stop element). The biasing force may be applied irrespective of whether the spouts are stationary or are caused to move towards the outlet to continuously discharge the containers from the outlet.
According to an embodiment the biasing unit comprises:                a rotatable biasing element;        a drive motor configured to rotate the biasing element;        
wherein the rotatable biasing element comprises a plurality of pusher elements and wherein at least one pusher element engages with the spouts and applies the biasing force to the subset of the spouts.
At least one pusher element may engage a spout and push it towards the outlet, causing all the spouts downstream of the engaged spout to travel towards the outlet or at least to be urged in that direction. The rotatable biasing element comprises at least two pusher elements, wherein the pusher elements are arranged in such a manner that essentially at all times at least one of the pusher elements is in contact with a spout. This ensures that the biasing force provided by the rotatable biasing element is continuously provided to the containers. More specifically, the rotatable biasing element may comprise a drive shaft and a plurality of pusher elements connected to the drive shaft at evenly distributed positions. By arranging the pusher elements at evenly distributed positions, for instance in a star-like arrangement and/or with equal angles between the pusher elements), the spouts experience a more constant biasing force.
The biasing unit is preferably configured to continuously discharge the containers which is discontinuously transported in the opening from the inlet.
In embodiments of the present disclosure the discharge apparatus comprises a controller configured to control the drive motor to vary the electric motor torque applied to the rotatable biasing element, wherein the controller is further configured to apply an enough torque to move the spouts towards the outlet and to continuously apply the biasing force to the spouts, but not to disturb the continuous discharge of the container from the outlet.
For instance, the controller may reduce the motor torque by reducing the electrical current to the drive motor in case the movement of the containers in the elongated opening is slowed and increase the motor torque again by increasing the current in case the containers are moved faster from the discharge apparatus to the further processing station. Therefore even when the movement of the containers through the elongated opening is changed, the containers are subjected to a biasing force. The containers will be available for immediate further transport when the further processing station so requires.
In further embodiments the discharge apparatus comprises a controllable means unit downstream of the rotatable biasing element that enables to passage of containers towards the downstream station in a controlled manner. The controllable means may comprise a controllable stop unit to prevent the containers in the outlet region to leave the discharge apparatus when activated and to allow the containers to be discharged from the outlet region when deactivated. In a specific embodiment the controllable stop unit comprises a stop element arranged close to the outlet of the elongated opening of the support element. The stop element is configured to be moved between a position wherein the passage of spouts is prohibited and a position wherein the spouts may pass. Other embodiments of the controllable means are conceivable as well. In certain embodiments the controller is not only configured to control the operation of the rotatable biasing element but also the operation of the controllable means. This controllable means may also be part of a downstream station. In either embodiment the controllable means allows a controlled delivery of the containers.
In embodiments of the present disclosure the pusher element comprises:                a back plate fixedly connected to the drive shaft;        a pusher plate pivotably connected to the drive shaft or to the back plate,wherein the pusher plate is preferably arranged so as to be pivotable in a plane perpendicular to the drive shaft, wherein the pusher plate extends at a position in front of the pusher plate relative to the direction of rotation of the drive shaft;        a spring element arranged between the pusher plate and back plate so as to bias the pusher plate in the direction of rotation.        
In these embodiments the biasing action may be delivered by the spring element between the back plate and pusher plate.
The biasing unit may be configured to engage at least one of the spouts from a further batch of containers each time a further batch of containers is received in the elongated opening of the support element. In this manner the further (new) batch of containers is directly pushed towards the outlet and the biasing force is immediately available for this new containers as well.
The elongated opening in the container support may be shaped to comprise a circular arch portion. In this case the rotatable biasing element may be arranged to be rotatable around an axis positioned at or near the center point of the circular arch portion.
According to an embodiment at least one of the pusher elements is rotatable relative to at least one of the other pusher elements. In this manner a gap between each batch of containers can be closed, for instance when the end of the tubular storage assembly has been reached.
The biasing unit may comprise:                a first pusher element;        a second pusher element;wherein the biasing unit is configured to rotate the second pusher element relative to the first pusher element.        
The biasing unit may further comprise:                a first drive motor configured to rotate the first pusher element;        a second drive motor configured to rotate the second pusher element;        a controller configured to control the first and second drive motor to rotate the first pusher element independently from the second pusher element.        
According to an other aspect of the present disclosure a discharge system for discharging a plurality of flexible containers from a tubular storage assembly, wherein each of the containers comprises a dispensing spout and wherein the storage assembly comprises a plurality of elongated guiding elements onto which a plurality of rows of dispensing spouts can be carried, wherein the guiding elements are configured to be maintained in a substantially tubular arrangement while the containers extend in a generally helical trajectory in the interior formed by the tubular arrangement, the discharge system comprising:                a storage assembly support configured to support the tubular storage assembly, the guiding elements extending in axial direction;        a discharge device configured to remove the containers from the tubular storage assembly and move the containers one by one from the second end of the tubular storage assembly towards a discharge region,        a discharge apparatus as defined herein, wherein the elongated opening of the discharge apparatus is arranged to receive spouted containers from a discharge region of the discharge device, wherein the discharge device comprises:                    a gripper unit;            a drive configured to rotate the gripper unit relative to the storage assembly;wherein the gripper unit is configured to grip dispensing spouts of containers successively passing by the gripper unit, to transport the gripped dispensing spouts and associated containers in essentially the axial direction and to accumulate the dispensing spouts and containers in the discharge region.                        
In an embodiment of the system the discharge device comprises a rotatable sweeper arm and a sweeper arm drive configured to rotate the sweeper arm for moving the accumulated spouts out of the gripper unit into the elongated opening of the discharge apparatus, and wherein the biasing unit comprises a rotatable biasing element configured to rotate at least partly synchronously with the sweeper arm.
According to a further aspect a method of discharging a plurality of flexible spouted containers is provided, the method comprising:                receiving successive batches of spouted containers in an elongated opening of a support element for carrying the spouted containers from an inlet to an outlet of the support element, the batches of spouted containers being provided to the inlet in a discontinuous manner;        causing the spouts to move through the elongated opening towards the outlet while continuously maintaining a biasing force to at least a subset of the spouts received inside the elongated opening to bias the spouts and associated containers towards the outlet.        
The maintaining of a biasing force to at least the subset of the spouts may further comprise applying a sufficient biasing force to continuously discharge the containers from the outlet.